Mickey Roth’s new venture to merge with Urban Sanctuary

From left: Galleria’s Mickey Roth, Urban Sanctuary’s Isaac Krispin and 160 Pearl Street It may be less than a year old, but Mickey Roth’s residential sales brokerage the Galleria Group is merging with Urban Sanctuary, The Real Deal has learned, to create a larger and more competitive firm, both company heads said.

The merger is a recent idea, said Isaac Krispin, president of Urban Sanctuary, and follows from the two firms working together on some recent resales in Midtown. No money will change hands in the deal, Krispin said, which is slated to be finalized in the next month or so.

Galleria, founded in 2010 by Roth, hot off the heels of his departure from Prudential Douglas Elliman and a short stint at Park River Properties, which he co-founded, now has seven agents and works out of a “small” seven-person office at 115 East 57th Street, Roth said. Urban Sanctuary has around 30 agents and two offices — at 160 Pearl Street and 37 East 28th Street. All of the current agents at both firms will be retained in the merger and Krispin expects to hire around 10 to 20 new agents.

“We thought it would be a good fit,” Krispin said. “In this economy it’s an advantage to be a larger firm.”

Neither Krispin nor Roth would talk specifics as to recent deals they’ve jointly made, saying they have not closed any of them yet. Galleria currently has a large number of listings in Midtown West, including multiple units at the Parc Vendome at 340 West 57th Street, according to its website.

Galleria, whose year-long lease has expired at its current premises and is now leasing month-to-month, will most likely join Urban Sanctuary’s 4,000-square-foot Pearl Street office, where Krispin said there is available space, though details have yet to be ironed out.

“I am on my own now,” Roth said of his recent split from longtime real estate partner Lenny Sporn, who he separated from when they both left Park River (Sporn returned to Elliman.) “I don’t have a partner and I’m good at a lot of things but need help with other things,” he added, explaining one of the reasons behind the merger.

As The Real Deal previously reported, Roth and Sporn were once the fifth-highest-grossing sales team at Elliman. Roth said he thinks he can bring some of his exclusives to the new company and provide better services to his current clients through the structure in place at Urban Sanctuary. He’s especially interested in getting involved with rental properties, which he didn’t work on at Galleria.

As for a name for the joint venture, nothing has been decided yet.

“We might go for something completely new,” Krispin said. The pair has not yet decided who will assume which title at the new venture.